Calle overcomes injuries to star for Hatters

Published 1:00 am, Saturday, February 4, 2006

DANBURY - By now it would seem like both of Katherine Calle's knees were not worth too much; that an ACL injury to each would have put an end to her track and soccer careers.

While playing in Danbury High's FCIAC semifinal soccer game her sophomore year she wrecked the left one, then playing soccer almost a year later she did the same to the right. And each time, she stood before the knives of surgery and the torment of rehabilitation hoping to put her knees and her spirits back together.

It would have been easy for Calle to give up after her injuries. She was the number one student in her senior class and a member of High or Distinguished Honors in every quarter of her high school career. She always had academics to fall back on.

But she didn't. She endured the hours in physical therapy and the track practices spent watching helplessly from the sidelines.

Calle and the rest of the Danbury girls will compete in the FCIAC Indoor Track and Field Chapmpionships today at 4 p.m. at Staples High in Westport. The boys' meet is at 10 a.m.

"I did physical therapy three times a week for three hours, and on the days I wasn't there I was at practice riding the bike, sometimes 20 miles," Calle said. "Seeing your team compete every week, it's incredibly hard to watch and not be able to do it."

And it seems Calle knew what she was doing in working so hard, because since then the confident leader, who holds the
Hatters school
record in the 50-meter dash (6.7 seconds) has returned to the indoor team, her knees and spirit both well intact and a full season free of injury almost complete.

"My doctor said he can't make knees better than God," Calle said. "But they're about as good as they can get."

At the
Yale Invitational
in late January, Katherine ran the 300 meter race and placed second on her team with a time of 44.54, and was a member of the 4x400 relay that placed sixth with a time of 4:12.09.

"It's quite remarkable in my eyes," Danbury coach
Kevin Wilcox
said with a smile. "That a kid can recover from not one but two (ACL injuries). It just says a lot about her work ethic and commitment to the program."

Though she was known as a sprinter prior to her knee injuries, Calle began to compete in the intermediate distances of the 300 and 400 meter events as she regained her quickness. Recently, she increased her distance length again and tested her endurance in the 600.

"It was easier for me to transition and go to the more moderate-paced distances than (ones that required) an explosiveness."

For Katherine and her sister Liz - who was once a long-distance Danbury track star and is now a sophomore at
Yale University
- competitiveness and devotion to success are shared traits, even though their means of obtaining it differed.

While Liz was exemplary in the distance events, it was Katherine who sped to formidable times in the 200 meter distances and shorter. There was an instance where the two collided in practice Katherine's freshman year when they ran against each other in the 400.

"She won then, but I don't know who would win now," Katherine said with a grin that beckoned a rematch.

So Liz, now in her second year running track at a different school than Katherine, knew all along how her sister would ward off the frustration of her injuries.

"Initially (getting injured) was kind of devastating for her," Liz said. "I was there to kind of encourage her, but more than anything she was very determined herself, she had a lot of internal drive. She probably spent more time on athletics than almost anyone I know."

And it's things like that that elevate her from simple decimal places and whatever finds its way into record books. Calle steadied herself on rebuilt knees, and finds herself among exclusive company in Danbury High track lore.

"There are probably 5 to 10 athletes that I talk about every year from the past," Wilcox, who has coached Danbury's girls track teams for over 10 years, said. "And Katherine will definitely be in that category."